SHIVITI HAMSA MIRROR
close window

I received a commission for a newborn baby's blessing amulet. The child's name is "Shayne," which means "Beautiful" in Yiddish. Resonating in the realm of "beauty," the line from the Bircat Hamazon came to me: v'yithadar banu l'ad u'liolmai olamim - "Amplify beauty within us for Eternity and from World to World."

Intention aside, there was no room for all those words on the small hamsa I had made for Shayne. Instead I created this hamsa, using a round,leaded green, bevelled miror for the hamsa's protective "eye", the requisite fish for abundance and integration of light and shadow, and the Shem Havaya (YHVH) prominently in the central finger (Rashi script).

"Seeing," from the perspective of internal beauty, does not recognize the absence of the Divine Essence, and so, above the central finger I have also included the word Shiviti - "I have equalized" (as in: "I have equalized the Essence of Divinity in all things in relation to myself forever") - the traditional focus placed as a marker on the eastern wall.

Etched above the mirror are the words from the Zohar that spoke to me as I was creating Shayne's hamsa - Sovev u'mimaleh olamot - "The One who surrounds and fills the Worlds (with blessing)." (Rashi script).

So, the intention placed in this hamsa is for the one who peers into the mirror to recognize their own beauty and Divine essence.

Acid etched copper,ink and leaded mirror. Backed in mahagony.   7" x 11.25"